High-Design Carousels and Pavilions
Energy Carousel, Dordrecht, the Netherlands
Designed by Ecosistema Urbano and completed in 2013, the structure—part carousel, part playground—captures the kinetic energy of children hanging and swinging on the ropes and stores it in a battery, which lights up the amusement after dark. The color and strength of the light varies according to how much energy has been collected that day.
SeaGlass Carousel, The Battery, New York
The latest attraction in this park at the southern tip of Manhattan is the SeaGlass Carousel. Conceived by architecture and urban design firm WXY, the attraction pays tribute to the site’s history as the original home of the New York Aquarium. The spiraling steel-and-glass nautilus-like ride contains 30 fish figures that carry visitors through an immersive “underwater” experience enhanced with lights, sound, and projected films. The carousel opens to the public on August 20.
Conservation Carousel, Staten Island Zoo, Staten Island, New York
As part of a larger redesign of the Children's Farmstead at the Staten Island Zoo, Slade Architecture developed a transparent enclosure for a new carousel. The firm was able to preserve several oak trees by using an ingenious foundation system, thus maintaining the natural feel of the parklike surroundings. On summer days the oaks shade the structure, while the glass-panel walls slide open and stack and a damper in the roof provides additional ventilation.
The Children’s Pavilion and Rose Carousel, Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Located in scenic Butchart Gardens and conceived by HCMA Architecture + Design, the Children’s Pavilion is home to the Rose Carousel. The structure includes a nearly 300-foot-long serpentine board-formed concrete wall, as well as a glass façade and a domed roof planted with native mosses.
Pier 62 Carousel, New York City
CDR Studio created a pavilion filled with sustainability features to house a carousel on New York’s Pier 62. A green roof planted with local grasses shades the carousel and includes solar panels, which can be used to power the attraction: Any excess energy goes back to the city’s grid. The firm used industrial materials—such as steel and concrete, as well as grille roll-down enclosures—as a nod to the warehouse that used to stand on the site.
Euclid Beach Park Carousel, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Built by Richard Fleischman + Partners Architects as part of the firm’s renovation of the 145-year-old Western Reserve Historical Society, the pavilion houses the historic Euclid Beach Park carousel. The round structure features sloping glass walls that play up the colors, lights, and movement of the carousel, and the cantilevered roof, which was designed to absorb sound, also gives a nod to the amusement’s canopy top.
Jane’s Carousel, Brooklyn
Artist Jane Walentas spent 27 years on the exquisite restoration of this 1922 carousel, which now resides in Brooklyn Bridge Park within an acrylic pavilion designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Jean Nouvel. Two of the structure’s four walls are retractable, opening it to the waterfront and views of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges and the city skyline.